What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.

Phyllis Diller (1917–2012) built her career in the 1950s–70s as a stand-up comedian known for rapid-fire one-liners and a brash, self-deprecating stage persona. Jokes about domestic life, social rituals, and workplace foibles were staples of her act and of the mid-century American comedy circuit (nightclubs, television variety shows, and corporate banquets). This line fits the era’s growing “office party” culture—company holiday gatherings where alcohol and loosened inhibitions could lead to embarrassing behavior and workplace consequences. The quip is typically circulated as a Diller one-liner rather than tied to a single documented performance date.

The joke hinges on a quick reversal: the speaker frames office Christmas parties as unpleasant not because they are boring, but because they are risky. The punchline implies that holiday revelry can spill into misconduct—drinking too much, saying the wrong thing to a boss, flirting, or otherwise damaging one’s reputation—so that the “next day” becomes a scramble for new employment. Diller’s humor often punctures polite social occasions by exposing the anxieties underneath them, and here she satirizes the thin line between sanctioned festivity and professional self-sabotage. The line endures because it captures a familiar modern fear: that a single public lapse can have outsized consequences at work.